OP-DEAD

There has been a rumor circulating around central NJ that The Star Ledger will stop printing in January 2009. However, the WSJ reported last week that the rumors of the Ledger's death have been greatly exaggerated. According to the WSJ:

The Star-Ledger newspaper in New Jersey said about 40% of its newsroom staff
will depart in a buyout wave, among the steepest cuts in the continued downsizing of the newspaper industry. The Star-Ledger earlier this month said it had secured enough buyout offers and labor concessions to ward off a threatened sale or closure of the paper, the country's 15th-largest by weekday circulation.

It's no secret that newsprint readership and circulation has been waning over the past decade. This is the result of 3 independent catalysts which have converged to change the way America does its "business." First, breakfast cereals and smoothies have been fortified with fiber. Second, Al Gore gave birth to the Internet. Third, women started infiltrating the white collar workforce.

In 1992, when a white collar worker wanted to kill some time, he would grab a paper and head for the head. This morning ritual was referred to by many as "a morning constitutional", "a gratifier" and eventually, crudely, "dropping a deuce." An average male professional in 1992 could spend anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour catching up on news and sports while enjoying the solitude of a restroom stall.

In 2008, with all the fiber supplements being crammed into breakfast cereals and 20 ounce cups of coffee now considered "small", the necessity to draw out the length these "constitutionals" has diminished. Additionally, the Internet now affords office workers an opportunity to waste time at their computer terminals, more discretely and with pants on. Finally, there are more women in the office. These women are constantly monitoring the length of a man's time away from his desk. It's as if women believe that monitoring the lack of productivity of their male counterparts will help them break through the glass ceiling. (Good luck sisters!)

The upshot of these trends is that newspapers are dying. That's lamentable, I suppose. Nevertheless, I am not disturbed in the least by the inevitable death of the Ledger. I'd love to see that rag fail. IMO, the Ledger has only done 2 things competently over the past 10 years: 1) report sports results and 2) recap Sopranos episodes.

While the growing popularity of the Internet has eroded away the Ledger's readership during this time (which I logically chronicled above) and advertisers have fled from print media, the balance of ads sold by the Ledger were related to the auto and real estate industries. Failing to recognize their growing dependence on the revenue generated by real estate ads, the Ledger continued to rail against real estate developers and builders through op-ed pieces and biased journalism as well as repeatedly endorsed politicians supporting anti-development agendas. The writers and editorial staff at the Ledger vilified and demonized everyone in the real estate development and construction industries (two of the only remaining viable blue-collar industries in NJ). Now that the real estate market has softened, it's no surprise that the Ledger is in it's death throes. After years of biting the hand that fed them, the hand has finally pulled away.

I will not miss The Star Ledger when it's finally gone - I find an iPhone much easier to read on the throne than a newspaper (remember that the next time you ask to play with my iPhone).